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Dazzling martial arts and stylish production design do battle with an undercooked story and one-note central characters in “100 Yards,” which comes to U.S. theaters on Friday after a limited local release for China in September. Initially an engaging portrait of two fighting aces duking it out for control of a martial arts academy in 1920s Tianjin, this handsomely packaged effort directed by brothers Xu Haofeng (“The Final Master” and co-writer of Wong Kar-wai’s “The Grandmaster”) and feature debutant Xu Junfeng is great to look at but runs aground with a seemingly endless series of encounters between status-obsessed males who become less and less interesting the longer their feud drags on. Action fans simply seeking top-drawer wushu combat should be satisfied, but general viewers may grow impatient with a repetitive plot that struggles to deliver compelling human drama from its promising elements.

“100 Yards” gets off to a...

Dustin Hoffman’s journey to stardom is no less than a testament to resilience and an unwavering dedication to his craft. Starting his career on Broadway, Hoffman found fame and acclaim despite his ‘unconventional’ looks. Breaking barriers with his extraordinary performances, the actor’s initial run is often regarded as an era of nuanced and deeply human storytelling, even when most of his roles can be categorized as ‘anti-heroes’.

Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate | Embassy Pictures

However, at the top of his game, Hoffman made the surprising decision to reject the legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg four times. While Spielberg isn’t the only director he refused, the actor now deeply regrets making those mistakes.

Dustin Hoffman Jeopardized His Career by Rejecting Steven Spielberg Four Times!

Hoffman in a still from Hook | TriStar Pictures

Dustin Hoffman was just a star on Broadway when he ended up getting his breakthrough role in the 1967 movie,...

Amsterdam- and Beijing-based Fortissimo Films is to pre-sell Chinese crime drama “Family at large,” kicking off at the Cannes Market.

The film had previously been announced with sales handled jointly by Fortissimo and Rediance. Now, Fortissimo alone is representing rights worldwide, ex-China.

Directed by Kang Bo, the film is set in the chilly far north of the country. A man, nicknamed “Reindeer,”, is released from prison and becomes involved in a child-abduction case across Northeast China. The man, a pregnant young woman and a mute boy wade into the dense forests of the frozen North in search of an abducted child. The film exposes a family-run human trafficking organization and portrays the underworld of the Northern border of China.

The cast is headed by the in-demand Hu Ge “(“The Wild Goose Lake,” Wong Kar-wai’s TV series “Blossoms”), “Angels Wear White” star Wen Qi (aka Vicky Chen), Yan Ni and Song Jia.

A new chapter in the “Kung Fu Panda” saga has been unleashed upon movie patrons. This film is accurately called Kung Fu Panda 4 and comes eight years after 2016’s Kung Fu Panda 3. This adventure, however, seems to be less a solid entry in the series and more of an example of the law of diminishing returns as it enjoys its best moments harkening back to earlier films in the series.

Po (Jack Black) faces his most difficult challenge yet as he is told he must retire from fighting as the Dragon Warrior and focus on more spiritual endeavors. For Po, however, this is problematic for two reasons: 1) first, he does not feel qualified to ascend to any sort of spiritual leadership and instead prefers to stick to “kicking butt” and, 2) he must find and train an apprentice to replace himself as the new Dragon Warrior to protect the Valley of Peace.

Xu Haofeng has emerged as one of the most renowned authors, scriptwriters and directors of martial arts titles, with his credits including “The Grandmaster” (as a script-writer), “The Hidden Sword” and “The Final Master”. His latest works in particular combine wuxia tropes with ultra stylish visuals, with the last among the aforementioned titles being a distinctive sample. The same applies to “100 Yards”, which he co-directed with Xu Junfeng, which had its international premiere in Toronto

100 Yards is screening at Toronto International Film Festival

The story is set in 1920s Tianjin, just as a respected martial artist and leader of a wushu Academy is about to die. A regulated duel between the top apprentice, Qi and the master's son, Shen, kickstarts the saga, with the former winning relatively easily, and thus earning the ownership of the academy, with Chairman Meng acting as the steward of the deceased, enforcing his will.

1920s Tianjin, in Northern China. The son of a martial arts master and his most talented apprentice fight to take over a prominent martial arts academy. But rather than obey the rule of settling disputes behind closed doors, they take their fight to the street. 100 Yards is co-directed by filmmakers Xu Haofeng and Xu Junfeng (making his feature directorial debut). The screenplay is written by Xu Haofeng. It's produced by Jacky Heung. This initially premiered at the 2023 Shanghai Film Festival this summer, and it next plays at the Toronto Film Festival this fall.

"If there was trouble within 100 yards of the entrance, it was dealt with." The first teaser trailer is out for a Chinese martial arts action film titled 100 Years, co-directed by the filmmakers Xu Haofeng & Xu Junfeng. This is premiering as a centerpiece selection at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival coming up this fall, its first screening outside of China after showing at the Shanghai Film Festival. Two bitter rivals (starring Jacky Heung and Andy On) duel for stewardship of a wushu academy, in this "cool and calculated" martial arts caper from Xu Haofeng. It's set in the 1920s in Northern China, pre-wwii. With martial arts choreography by Duncan Leung, and cinematography by Shao Dan. The cast also includes Bea Hayden Kuo, Tang Shiyi, and Li Yuan. I'm digging the more minimalistic, refined style of this - clean shots, and clean dialogue. Bring it on. // Continue Reading ›...

Long-awaited martial-arts film “The Hidden Sword” announced Monday that its theatrical release this Friday in China has been canceled because of “market reasons,” becoming the latest casualty of a censorship campaign that is damaging the country’s box office.

The film is helmed by writer-director Xu Haofeng (“The Final Master”), who was also the screenwriter for Wong Kar Wai’s “The Grandmaster.” “The Hidden Sword” stars Xu Qing, Zhang Aoyue (“The Final Master”) and Huang Jue. It was completed and approved in 2017 by China’s official censors, who issued it the necessary “dragon seal” of Chinese government approval for theatrical release.

That year, it won the prize for best artistic contribution at the 41st Montreal World Film Festival and was nominated for four prizes at the Taiwan-based Golden Horse Awards, long the most prestigious awards for Chinese-language films. Posters and trailers for the movie were released, but it never ended up hitting Chinese theaters,...

Beijing and Amsterdam-based sales agent also adds Super Me, exec produced by the Russo Brothers, to its Cannes slate.

Fortissimo Films is launching sales in Cannes on Ann Hui’s latest drama, Love After Love, an adaptation of a short story by Eileen Chang.

Based on the story Aloeswood Incense, published in Chang’s Love In A Fallen City collection, the film follows a young woman who moves from Shanghai to Hong Kong in search of an education. However, she ends up working for her aunt by luring rich and powerful men and is forced into a loveless marriage with a playboy.

It’s been a good year for Beijing Culture, one of the lead production companies behind some the biggest films of the year in China.

The company began as a tourism-management entity overseeing popular historic sites of interest in Beijing, and only established its film division in 2016. Yet in the space of three years, it has been a driving force behind China’s two top-grossing films of all time – “Wolf Warrior 2,” which took in $847 million, and “The Wandering Earth,” which grossed $686 million and is still in theaters – as well as mega-hit “Dying to Survive” ($462 million at the B.O.) and “A Cool Fish,” the 10th highest-grossing locally produced film last year with a $119 million gross.

Last year, Beijing Culture made a net profit of $48.7 million, up 6% year-on-year, thanks to a rise in the profitability of its film business compared to previous years, according to Chinese media reports.

The company...

Far and away our most-anticipated film at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival isn’t even premiering in the competition lineup. Bi Gan’s dreamlike odyssey Kaili Blues was one of the best films of 2016, and one of the greatest debuts of this decade thus far, and now the Chinese director is now back with Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which will debut as part of the Un Certain Regard lineup.

Starring Tang Wei, Sylvia Chang (Mountains May Depart), Huang Jue (The Final Master), Lee Hong-chi, and his Kaili Blues star Chen Yongzhong, Long Day’s Journey Into Night is a detective story that follows a man who returns to his hometown to find a mysterious woman whom he spent an unforgettable summer with twelve years earlier.

Check out a batch of stunning new images below, along with the synopsis, and return for our review.

Luo Hongwu returns to Kaili, the...

Author: Competitions

To celebrate the release of acclaimed martial arts movie The Final Master from Cine Asia, we have an awesome kung fu DVD double bill up for grabs including Ip Man and Young Bruce Lee, to get you in the mood for action.

Don’t miss The Final Master making its long-awaited arrival in the UK! In 1930’s China, Wing Chun master Chen She (Fan Liao, Assembly, Chinese Zodiac), arrives in Tianjin, a city famous for martial arts. With plans to open his own kung fu school, he must first train a student to defeat eight of the city’s masters, legitimising himself as a teacher. But when he is caught up in local politics and an underworld power struggle, Chen finds himself at odds with dangerous people and will fight to protect what he holds most dear.

Written and directed by Xu Haofeng (The Grandmaster) and co-starring Jia Song (Shock Wave Tunnel,...

Attempting to explore more traditional terrain, writer/director Xu Haofeng decides to explore one of his own novellas for his third directorial outing after the acclaimed efforts ‘The Sword Identity’ and ‘Judge Archer.’ Employing a more recent stage for his period-set martial arts drama, ‘The Final Master’ or released under the original title ‘Shi Fu,’ allows him to go for a realistic touch to the martial arts.

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Desperate to open a new studio, martial arts master Chen Shi (Fan Liao, from “Black Coal, Thin Ice”) yearns to introduce Wing Chun, a relatively new martial arts style, into Chinese territories. When told by Grandmaster Zheng (Shih-Chieh King, from “Brotherhood of Blades”) that such a practice is not allowed, he and his wife Zhao Guohui (Jia Song, from “Red Cliff”) find a way of getting around the circumstances by signing a protegee and selecting Geng Yiangchen (Song Yang, from...

From producer Jackie Chan and director Hong-Seung Yoon (The Target), the action-packed sci-fi thriller Reset arrives on digital and Blu-ray February 6 from Well Go USA Entertainment. Yang Mi (Brotherhood of Blades II) stars as a scientist trying to save her son from death at the hands of kidnappers by using an experimental universe-hopping/time-travel technology to save him. Reset also stars Wallace Huo (Our Time Will Come), King Shih-Chieh (The Final Master), Liu Chang (“The Kings Woman”) and newcomers Hummer Zhang and Wang Lidan. Reset was nominated as Best Film at the 2017 Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival.

In the near future, scientist Xia Tian (Yang Mi) is on the verge of a major discovery: time travel. After she successfully sends living tissue back in time by 110 minutes, her years of work seem to have paid off, but everything unravels when her young son is kidnapped and held for a hefty ransom – all of her research.

Netflix has released a list of all of the movies and TV shows that are coming to Netflix in the month of October along with the release dates of them. They've got some good stuff coming including some Netflix originals that I'm excited about seeing including Stranger Things Season 2, Mindhunters, 1922 and more.

Look over al the titles and let us know which titles you're looking forward to seeing. I also provided a lit of everything that's leaving Netflix next month.

Available October 1

88 Minutes

A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song

Before Midnight

Blood Diamond

Boogie Nights

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Cleverman: Season 2

Death Sentence

Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Eagle vs. Shark

Eyes Wide Shut

Generation Iron 2

Ghost Patrol

I Love You, Man

Ice Guardians

Lockup: Disturbing the Peace: Collection 1

Made of Honor

Miss Congeniality

Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous...

While October usually signals the arrival of all sorts of spooky, creepy, scary, and otherwise appropriately Halloween-themed films to both theaters and streaming services, this month’s batch of new titles on Netflix offers up a delightfully wide variety of choices that aren’t all tied to the year’s primary celebration of fear. Sure, those titles are there — from more mainstream chillers like “Cult of Chucky” and the new original “The Babysitter,” to more offbeat picks like the cannibal coming-of-age tale “Raw” and the seminal “Donnie Darko” — but this month’s incoming list has more than enough for movie fans who don’t want to shriek at their televisions.

Read More:’30 Rock’: The 25 Episodes You Need to Watch Before Tina Fey’s Iconic Comedy Leaves Netflix

Oh, and it’s also a month we’re going to deem Official Unofficial Noah Baumbach Month on Netflix, as the filmmaker...

Haofeng Xu (screenwriter of The Grandmaster) writes and directs the action-packed martial arts drama The Final Master, available on digital,

Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD July 25 from Well Go USA Entertainment. Liao Fan (Let the Bullet’s Fly), Jiang Wenli (Farewell My Concubine), Chin Shi-Chieh (The Guillotines), Song Jia (Falling Flowers) and Song Yang (The Sword’s Identity) star in the story of a Wing Chun master who must defeat eight martial arts schools in order to open his own school, but he becomes a chess piece in the local power dynamics. Bonus content includes a featurette on the Director and a look at “The Weapons” used in the film.

The Final Master won Best Action Choreography at the 2015 Golden Horse Film Festival and was named a Film of Merit in 2016 from the Shanghai Film Critics Awards.

In 1930s China, unrest rules the nation. Chen, the last Wing Chun master,...

Adapting a script based on the life of the last Wing Chun master’s quest to pass down his art in pre-wwii China, Xu Haofeng (the writer of “The Grandmaster) decided to use an original style of narrative in order to separate his film from the plethora of similar productions coming out of Hong Kong at the moment. Let us find out if he succeeded.

“The Final Master” is part of the Asian selection at Fantasia International Film Festival

Wing Chun grandmaster Chen is the last practitioner of the art after his master died. As he tries to keep Wing Chun alive, he also tries to fulfill his master’s dream, to open a dojo in Tianjin, the “capital” of the martial worlds in the 1930’s Shanghai. In his mission, he has the help of Master Zheng, a board member of the Tianjin Martial Art’s Committee, who is considered...

Exclusive: Distribution Workshop picks up Xu Haofeng-directed title.

Hong Kong-based Distribution Workshop has picked up international rights to martial arts action title The Hidden Sword, directed by Xu Haofeng.

Starring Zhang Aoyue (The Final Master), Jessie Li (Port Of Call) and Chen Kuan Tai (14 Blades), the film is currently in post-production for tentative release towards the end of the year.

Based on Xu’s own novella, the film is set in the 1930s when a special sword has helped the Chinese army win the war against Japan. The old man who developed the sword tries to go into hiding with his family, when his martial techniques start to attract too much attention, but eventually the outside world starts to intrude.

A leading martial arts fiction writer, Xu has also directed critically-acclaimed films such as The Sword Identity (2011), Judge Archer (2012) and The Final Master (2015) and co-wrote the screenplay for The Grandmaster (2013) with Wong Kar-wai. The Final Master, which...

One of the best debuts of last year — and one of the best films, period — was Bi Gan‘s dreamlike odyssey Kaili Blues. Finally now available on Blu-ray, the Chinese director is prepping his follow-up and he looks to be increasing his scope when it comes to his collaborators.

Screen Daily reports Tang Wei (Blackhat, Lust, Caution), Sylvia Chang (Mountains May Depart) and Huang Jue (The Final Master), Lee Hong-chi (Thanatos, Drunk), and his Kaili Blues star Chen Yongzhong have joined the film, titled Long Day’s Journey Into Night. With Wild Bunch kicking off sales at Cannes next week, check out the synopsis for the detective drama below.

The story follows a man who returns to his hometown to find a mysterious woman whom he spent an unforgettable summer with twelve years earlier. The woman never told him her name, or any details of her life, and the...

Exclusive: Wild Bunch to handle sales on ‘Kaili Blues’ director’s second feature

Chinese director Bi Gan has attracted a top-flight cast for his second feature, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, including Tang Wei (Lust, Caution), Sylvia Chang (Mountains May Depart) and Huang Jue (The Final Master).

In addition, Wild Bunch has come on board to handle international sales on the detective drama, which also stars Taiwanese actor Lee Hong-chi (Thanatos, Drunk) and reunites the director with Chen Yongzhong, the lead actor of his award-winning debut, Kaili Blues.

Shanghai-based Dangmai Films, established by Bi and producer Shan Zuolong, is producing with Huace Group and Han Han’s Pmf Pictures, while Charles Gillibert’s Paris-based CG Cinema will co-produce. Wild Bunch, which will commence sales on the film in Cannes next week, is handling all territories outside China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The story follows a man who returns to his hometown to find a mysterious...

Xu Haofeng took best director for his martial arts film at the inaugural edition of the event.

Chinese director Xu Haofeng won best director for The Final Master at the inaugural Asian Brilliant Stars awards ceremony in Berlin last night.

Best producer went to Huayi Brothers Pictures CEO Jerry Ye Ning for The Wasted Times, while best screenwriter went to Liu Zhenyun for Someone To Talk To.

The winners were selected by a panel of industry experts headed by veteran Chinese director Xie Fei (Black Snow).

Organised by Asian Film & Television Promotion (Aftp), Beijing Film Academy and the actor committee of the China Radio And Television Association (Crta), the awards were held at Palmenhof/Silbersaal in the Sony Centre last night (Feb 12).

The Berlinale’s 2017 Shooting Stars attended the event and exchanged ideas with the award winners. Both Asian Brilliant Stars and Shooting Stars aim to promote local talent at an international level.

What Are You Watching? is a weekly space for The A.V Club’s film critics and readers to share their thoughts, observations, and opinions on movies new and old.

Two wuxia movies by the Chinese writer-turned-filmmaker Xu Haofeng: The Sword Identity (2011) and Judge Archer (2012). Xu, who has some reputation as an expert on historical martial arts styles, directs action like nobody else on the planet—as abrupt exchanges between opposing philosophies of movement, choreographed in a careful selection of symmetrical and asymmetrical frames, barely qualifying as violence. His plotting is conceptual and murky, often difficult to grasp. The Sword Identity and Judge Archer (both adapted from Xu’s fiction, as was his more recent The Final Master) involve some transference of identity between parties—martial artists mistaken for pirates in the former, a traumatized young man taking on the mantle of a master in the latter. Their ...

For 10 years, Five Flavours Film Festival has been presenting the best cinema from Asia, its meanings and contexts. Initially, the Festival focused solely on Vietnamese films, but it evolved to become a yearly review of the cinema of East and Southeast Asia, the only such event in the country.

The 10th edition is held in Warsaw, on November 16-23 (Muranów and Kinoteka cinemas), and in Wrocław on November 18-24 (New Horizons Cinema).

This year’s edition of Five Flavours is the biggest in history – it presents over 40 productions. The program combines artistic and commercial cinema, allowing the audience to experience the best Asian films have to offer. On the one hand, there are the intimate stories with a social angle, on the other – fresh, innovative blockbusters, filled with the sheer joy of cinematic creation, attracting millions of viewers in their homelands.

Three

This diversity is already visible in the choice...

A director who’s won awards as a screenwriter, martial arts choreographer and literary novelist, Xu Haofeng seriously believes in multitasking. The writer of Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster and Chen Kaige’s Monk Comes Down the Mountain, Xu sits in the director’s chair for The Final Master, the latest piece in his collection of “cold weapon” films, spotlighting the use of traditional Chinese knives in battle. Director Xu spoke with me about adapting his own novels and mixing philosophy and politics with his kung fu. The Lady Miz Diva: The Final Master is the third in a trilogy of adaptations of your own novels. I often hear filmmakers talk about the difficulties in adapting literature. What was it like for you adapting your own work? Xu...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

When it comes to mainstream modern martial-arts flicks, Western audiences have become jaded as they expect rapid-fire fight scenes full of downright supernatural moves that defy the rules of physics, while giving the protagonist the kind of dexterity and strength that would be better suited for a superhero. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a […]

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